The Tortured Life of a Son of Hermes
by Miz636
Summary: Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, was a misunderstood demigod who had been a willing victim of the Second Titan War. His life had been full of pain, conflict, loss, sadness, anger, and betrayal. One-Shot.


**_Disclaimer: Nothing in this belongs to me. It all belongs to the fantastic Rick Riordan, and I'm just playing in his sandbox, practically on top of his castle._  
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**The Tortured Life of a Son of Hermes**

Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, was a misunderstood demigod who had been a willing victim of the Second Titan War.

His life had been full of pain, conflict, loss, sadness, anger, and betrayal. From the time he was an infant until his death, Luke had had a hard life.

May Castellan, his mother, lost her mind when she tried to become the Oracle, not realizing there was a curse upon it. For years he grew up with her, her eyes suddenly glowing green and speaking of a fate and a destiny he didn't know about or understand. It confused him, a young boy, and when he turned nine, he finally began to understand that his mother wasn't all there. His years with her had been hard, and in the end, he got so tired of it that he ran away at only nine years of age.

Of course, life on the run is hard for anyone, but a young demigod? It's even worse. Monsters attacking at every turn, no place safe from the chance of being killed… But Luke was tough, and he was a son of the god of thieves, and he got by until he found and made his very first friend: Thalia Grace, daughter of Zeus.

Luke and Thalia ran and fought for their lives together, always on the run and never stopping beyond creating safe houses. They talked, confiding in one another, becoming closer to one another than they had been to anyone else. Together, they found friendship, loyalty to a friend, a will to survive, and the ability to fight.

Then, one day in Virginia, they found a young blond girl, only seven-years-old, and she was Annabeth Chase, daughter of Athena. Now Luke not only had to fight to protect himself and Thalia, stealing food when necessary, but he also had a young girl who looked up to him so much to care for, just adding to his burdens. However, Luke never once complained because he cared for the two girls too much. Still, it wore down on him.

This wouldn't have been too much of a problem if he hadn't been forced to return to his childhood home, meeting his father for the first time ever. It made him angry, made him reckless, and it put Thalia and Annabeth into danger. He stopped caring as much about the pair as he raged at his father, fighting monster after monster, _hunting_ for them, even.

So when his knack for going after monsters led to Thalia sacrificing herself on the hill the led to Camp Half-Blood, Luke blamed himself before blaming the gods. _They_ had let her die; _Hermes_ had led to his putting Annabeth and Thalia in danger… Luke's rage towards his father grew into a hatred towards not only his father but the rest of the gods as well.

Luke spent the next five years training and learning to fight and becoming the best swordsman at camp, harboring his hatred and anger and letting it fester within in.

Then, the voice in his dreams came.

The son of Hermes began seeing a dark pit, so deep he couldn't see the bottom, in his dreams, and an old voice, a _powerful_ voice, spoke to him. It spoke of the destruction of Olympus, the removal of the gods, _revenge_ on the gods. This voice spoke of power for Luke, promising him anything and everything he had ever wanted or would ever want. How could Luke say no to the voice?

So Luke began learning from the voice, listening to its plans. Finally, on the winter solstice, some of the senior full-year campers were taken to Olympus, and Luke was given his chance to follow his Lord's orders that would lead to his revenge, his power. He stole Zeus's Lightning Bolt and Hades' Helm of Darkness, and he ran.

His Lord told him how to convince Ares to do his bidding, and Luke was free to return to camp to watch for the boy his Lord told him would be important, _special_.

When the boy, Percy Jackson, arrived at camp, Luke couldn't believe this was the boy his Lord spoke of, but he knew better than to doubt his Lord, so Luke befriended the twelve-year-old. Percy Jackson was then claimed as the son of Poseidon, and that was when Luke understood how he was so special, why the gods had taken such an interest in him, why his Lord had almost an obsession with him. This boy was quite possibly the one of the Great Prophecy.

His Lord Kronos spoke to the boy in his own dreams, but Percy was stubborn and didn't understand power – the power Lord Kronos offered. Even worse, Percy Jackson almost found out that he worked for Lord Kronos too early. Fortunately, his Lord forced the boy away before he learned too much, and everything was still going like it needed to.

But, of course, Percy had to mess things up by actually succeeding at the quest and returning what had been stolen. He couldn't have just died in the Underworld like Lord Kronos had hoped after realizing that Percy wouldn't join them in their quest to destroy Olympus.

Luke had learned during and after his failed quest that the gods only used their children, didn't truly care for them, yet Percy, who had been shown the same thing on his own quest, even at a higher level, still didn't seem to care that he was only alive to be used by his father. It only further angered Luke, who was already furious at the gods for his terrible history, so Luke had no qualms about using the scorpion to kill Percy. Unfortunately, the son of Poseidon couldn't even _die_ properly.

So Luke spent the next year being the voice of his Lord Kronos, recruiting monsters and demigods, especially the unclaimed ones. With each new subject, the Titan army grew, and Lord Kronos was pulled out of Tartarus, piece-by-piece. Luke grew older and became stronger, working for Lord Kronos because it would get him what he wanted: revenge on the gods for all they had done to him.

When Lord Kronos ordered Luke to poison the only remnant of his friend Thalia, her pine tree, he actually hesitated. Lord Kronos had to tell Luke the plan, and it convinced him. The chance to actually see Thalia again, to have her fight alongside him against the gods, was something he truly dreamed for, so he poisoned her tree in hopes for it to come true.

And so Percy Jackson's second quest began. He watched him, followed him, kept tabs on him, and in the end, he both failed and succeeded. Lord Kronos was furious that he would have to use another plan to recover his body, but he was calmed by the knowledge that he had gained another chance at controlling the Great Prophecy: Thalia Grace.

Unfortunately, Luke had underestimated Thalia.

Lord Kronos had had the son of Hermes go to the River Styx and take a dip, but Luke fought his Lord, because this was one thing he wasn't sure if he was willing to do for his goal. In the end, however, his Lord Kronos convinced him that doing this would allow him to succeed, to destroy Olympus brick-by-brick, and he had gone to the Underworld and taken a swim.

It was this that saved him the day of the winter solstice.

When Thalia cried because of his betrayal, breaking his heart in the process while also sealing his bond to Kronos even further because she wouldn't turn against the gods, and when she got so startled by his suddenly movement that she pushed him off that cliff with her spear, Luke only survived due to his immortality from his dip in the River Styx. Without it, he would have died and never lived to see his dream of revenge come true.

But then… but then Lord Kronos asked something of Luke that really, truly scared him. The idea of it alone… Luke couldn't even _think_ about it without shuddering. No, instead, he tried one last idea that had come to him: He went to Annabeth and asked her to run away with him again, just like old times. In a way, he knew she would say no, knew that he would have to do what his Lord had asked, but it was his one chance to get away from his fate, his destiny, and he had to try, even if her refusal hurt him so terribly in the end.

So Luke went into the Labyrinth and got his army passage through it before returning to his Lord and taking his place in the coffin that held what survived of Lord Kronos, allowing the Titan of Time to possess his body before and after he had fully returned.

From then on, Luke felt as if he was burning, being attacked at all times. His soul, his mind, was still there, fighting his Lord despite reluctantly agreeing to this, crying out in pain in a place no one could hear him. It all hurt _so_ badly, but there was nothing Luke, son of Hermes, could do, because he had given his body, life, mind, and soul to his Lord, and now he had to live with the consequences.

For the next year, Luke was aware of what Lord Kronos did with his body, and he fought for control over it, wishing with all he had that he had taken the chances Percy had offered him on behalf of his father rather than allow his rage and fury and hatred to consume him so. Luke could feel his body slowly being burnt away as Lord Kronos regained his own power, slowly destroying the stepping stone that was Luke.

He went through so much pain as he fought for control and could never gain it for more than a few moments at a time, though he most certainly made things difficult for Lord Kronos when it came to his body. Still, it wasn't enough, and it felt like it would never be enough as Lord Kronos led the attack on Manhattan, heading towards the Empire State Building and the 600th floor of it.

The Titan army killed those who had once been Luke's friends, and Lord Kronos fought Percy Jackson himself. Percy had done the same as Luke had been forced to do, and he now had Achilles' Curse on him, giving him immortality yet making him more vulnerable than he had ever been, just as Luke was. Neither could win the fight, and Lord Kronos retreated, Luke trying to take advantage of the Titan's tiredness to take over, again without success. However, between the Titan's weariness and his beginning to prepare to leave Luke's body, Luke could feel that the chance for him to truly regain control was coming soon. He just needed help…

And while demigods he had once trained beside died – one of them poor Silena Beauregard, a daughter of Aphrodite and the poor girl he had used to terribly – Luke used what energy and power he still had to fight Lord Kronos, despite it being futile. No matter how much he wanted Olympus destroyed and the gods gone, Luke now realized this wasn't the way to do it; he didn't want his friends to really _die_.

Then, finally, he was given the chance he needed. Annabeth spoke of family and held the knife he had given to her over a promise that had long since been broken, and Luke found a hidden strength deep down inside of him. He overpowered Lord Kronos, though it wouldn't last for long, and he begged Percy to trust him to do the right thing, to stop Lord Kronos from succeeding with his plan to regain his full body. And Percy gave him the knife, let him do what he needed to.

Fighting his Lord, Luke opened his armor and cut himself on his Achilles' heel, utter pain filling every fiber of his body as Kronos finally left him, dissipating in the air and leaving him for good. Still, Luke knew he was dying, and he looked upon his friend, Grover, the girl who he saw as a sister, Annabeth, and the one who had trusted him to end it all, Percy. He spoke to them, he told them the truth, let them realize that hosting Lord Kronos had shown him the truth and the wrong in what he had done.

He was ready to die, ready to accept whatever was done to him. If he went to the Fields of Punishment, he would accept it because he felt he deserved nothing else. But Annabeth told him that he had earned Elysium, and if he actually went there, he'd do it another three times, aiming for the Isles of Blest, just to prove that he had learned his lesson.

And he knew that Percy would make sure it never happened again, because that was who Percy was. The son of Poseidon wouldn't do anything less.

And so Luke Castellan, son of Hermes, died, his life full of pain, sadness, anger, betrayal, conflict, and loss, but he died at peace with himself and his death and what he had done with his life.

A misunderstood demigod who had been a willing victim of the Second Titan War.

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><p><strong>This one-shot, quite truthfully, was inspired by my thinking about PJO and my amazing friend Percabeth777, though she had no idea until she read this very Author's Note. I was thinking of how it had been so long since I had written a one-shot for this fandom and what she might think of it (PJO obsessed girl that she is), and this idea popped into my head. I've always viewed Luke as a willing victim of the War, and I tried to show it here. Maybe it worked, maybe it didn't. At least I tried.<strong>

**Let me know what you think of my third journey into the world of Percy Jackson, this time without my normal guide. :)  
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